State music chart service accepts G-DRAGON's music USB as actual album

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Aju News) -- Earlier this year, G-DRAGON sparked a controversy with his album "Kwon Ji Yong", an album in a form of a USB memory stick, over whether the USB album should be counted as an actual offline album.

Gaon Chart, South Korea's state-run music ranking service, decided in June that the USB is not actually an album because the memory stick needed an internet connection to download music files. Instead, the state-run music chart service added the number of the album's sales to the singer's digital music sales, saying the decision was based on the copyright law.

However, Gaon Chart admitted its decision was out of date and announced changes will be made starting next year. Gaon Chart said in a statement released on Tuesday that it would meet with the rapidly changing new media and device environment and change the definition of "replica based on the copyright law" and "offline album" to a "product being sold in bulks".

According to the state music chart service, albums released in forms of USB and other storage devices will be counted as actual albums starting from January 1, 2018.